As a visual piece, Barrier #1 is all kinds of awesome. Marcos Martin’s pacing is sublime; the comic is “widescreen”–or landscape–with Martin sometimes using the whole page, sometimes filling it with as many panels as possible, sometimes splitting a single “shot” into panels. The visual reading experience is sublime.
The script? Eh.
Barrier is from late 2015. It’s creator-owned, originally digital. So far, politically-speaking, it dates poorly. Though, frankly, some of those questionable characterizations were always going to be questionable.
The first issue is an introduction to the main characters, Liddy and Oscar. Liddy is a Texan rancher, ranching her daddy’s place no doubt because tropes, and she’s having problems with a drug gang. She thinks. It’s unclear.
Oscar is from Honduras. He’s sneaking into the States, onto Liddy’s land eventually, and his entire story is in Spanish. No translation. Its success is–like the comic–a showcase for Martin’s art.
The stuff with Liddy getting drunk and maybe hiring an ex-military type to “deal with” her problem? Not so successful.
Of course, given how the issue ends, it’s entirely possible nothing this issue is going to matter.
CREDITS
Writer, Brian K. Vaughan; artist, Marcos Martin; colorist, Muntsa Vicente; publisher, Panel Syndicate (2015) / Image Comics (2018).
It’s a bridging issue. It’s got beautiful art, but it’s a bridging issue. Having a bridging issue on The Private Eye seems very strange because it’s self-published and digital and I’ve always assumed bridging issues were to meet some kind of publishing requirement or editorial mandate. Yet Vaughan does one here; maybe once you start doing them, you can’t stop.
It’s an odd issue. There’s a lot at the hospital with the P.I.’s assistant recovering, then becoming the target of both the investigators and the bad guys. It’s all very dramatic and Martin does a good job laying on the thrills. Vaughan actually ends up using some of it for comic relief, which is a little odd.
After the protracted cliffhanger resolution, this issue starts getting really good and never stops. A lot of it is Martin. He’s got some breathtaking pages in this issue; it’s like he was waiting to impress.
It’s the best issue in quite a while–maybe ever–but because Vaughan doesn’t try too hard. The most glaring exposition he gets in about the setting is a reference to Rand Paul’s presidency. The issue also feels like a private eye investigating.
Well, it’s better than the second issue anyway.
Let’s see what happens this issue. The lead has a sidekick. A teenage girl or something; she can do all sorts of stuff because she hasn’t relinquished her identity yet. He’s also got a partner in the sister of a dead client.
While there’s nothing new under the sun, there’s especially nothing new in The Private Eye. Brian K. Vaughan does come up with some interesting details for his future setting–cloud computing imploded, everyone’s secrets came out, now the news media has been nationalized and reporters are cops.
